Watchers of Trust
by Tempered with Fate
Summary: This is my first fanfic. It takes place in the world of FFVIII, but I use my own characters. I try to develop characters, as that is the part of games I enjoy most. Please Read and Review.


Watchers of Trust (this title is a generic, subtle sounding title with no meaning)

By Tempered with Fate

Disclaimer- I do not own Final Fantasy

Chapter 1- The Life they Lead

Solir looked over the desk with the curious look he always had for students interested in entering garden. This person seemed shy, though you could never tell from these interviews. He was short with light brown hair, and dark eyes. He spoke quietly in response to all the questions, in generally concise, full responses. He never knew where to put his hands as he spoke, sometimes he would crack his knuckles, sometimes he would put them on his knees, but they never stayed in one place long. The boy was 17 and was named Nivo, "So..." Solir said and then asked the last question on his list, one he always asked unsure, for it seemed so wrong for some "How would you describe yourself?" Nivo looked up in surprise for all the other questions had been testing his knowledge of combat. He took a few seconds before responding slowly.

"I've never been too good with people, but I generally find a few people I can really be with." He looked up unsure if this was what he should be saying, and nervous for this was the only place he wanted to be. He had a sense of the headmaster watching. He was for the first time actually interested in the words the rest had just been formality. "I act very differently based on my surroundings, and will go along with what others are doing." He struggled through the words, wanting to be honest yet also knowing that this wasn't who he wanted to be. Seeing his obvious discomfort Solir interrupted.

"It's okay, that's enough." He said making a quick mental decision "Let's go down in the elevator and find someone to tour you around." He smiled inwardly for he always had a weakness for honesty, or what looked like it. They walked into the elevator, Nivo got the sense he had been accepted, but was still unsure. They rode the elevator in silence down two floors. When they got out on the circular floor of Balamb Garden it was empty and Solir checked his watch, 4:25. "It's still class time, oh." he stopped quickly as someone came furtively out of the cafeteria carrying half a hot dog. "Kusiro" Solir yelled "Skipping class again?" Kusiro jumped before walking over with a guilty, yet also satisfied smile as he took a bite out of the hot dog. Solir chuckled "Well your punishment today is to be a tour guide. This is our newest accepted student: Nivo. Kusiro smiled at him before finishing the hot dog.

"Hi" he was tall and muscularly built with utter confidence surrounding him. "Alright come with me." As the headmaster went back up the elevator he spoke of the different parts of the Garden. After a quick tour he showed him the dorms "I have class now so you can relax here, a teacher will come looking for you within the next 20 minutes, and you'll get shown the Training Area in detail. Nice to meet you." He reached out and they shook, Kusiro shook with a friendly, firm style. Nivo waved "bye" as Kusiro left.

Kusiro headed to his next class to be met by one of his friends, Syra in a joking manner. He headed over to his desk joking back as the teacher sat down in front of the class and stared in a dignified, serious manner. "Everyone here is taken the field test tomorrow morning. This is the most important test it decides whether you shall become a SeeD or not." He began lecturing, occasionally calling on academically serious students. Kusiro always sat in the back, not to joke around with friends but to watch people.

Nivo was picked up by the teacher, Roanna and was shown the Training Center. It was vast and quite scary for him. However he was skilled enough with his rapier to be barely hurt when they left. Then he traveled to the dorms before going to the cafeteria. He saw Kusiro and walked over. The group Kusiro and therefore for the moment he hung out in consisted of five people. Kusiro, Syra always cheery and Dosty, joking with the rest. Also Tidi and Millora, they were quieter and always with their arms around each other's shoulders. It was a nice enough group and yet he felt out of place.

In bed that night he thought about his new life and his old one. He had grown up in Winhill a small town south of Galbadia in a recently developed area newly called Firissia, Winhill however remained the quiet peaceful town it had always been. He had had friends but never found a way to fit with himself. He wanted to be greater and matter more. He had practiced with his rapier every day. And here it seemed like people still didn't have the deep need for success he had. Yet there was also something he saw in them that made him unsure of what to think. "Stop" he told himself you're rambling. Maybe a half hour later he got the thoughts out of his head and fell asleep.

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All the students taking the test (and to their annoyance everyone else) woke up early as an announcement came from the huge sound system reminding them to get up. Sixteen students organized in the front of the school as the rest of it milled about, annoyed and groggy. Nivo looked around, he saw Kusiro, Syra, Dosty but didn't see Millora or Tidi so he asked the question "where are Millora and Tidi?" Kusiro turned to him and replied laughing a little. "Tidi didn't pass the exams a few weeks back, his alibi was a mysterious mosquito buzzing around that no one but him could see, and Millora decided not to finish the exams if she couldn't go through them with him. It's a shame because that will be considered bad conduct and she truly deserves to be a SeeD, but it's what she wanted." Nivo shook his head to himself, someone choosing not to be a SeeD, weird, he had worked for months just to get into the now much more selective Balamb Garden then it had been 150 years ago (the time of FFVIII). After the rest of the crowd said "good morning" or "goo morn... (yawn) the headmaster Solir showed up. It took a little while to get the group to pay attention to him but when they did he spoke in his lecture voice, which he always used when he considered something serious and it would take a little while to tell it all.

"I don't know how much you all know recent politics between the forces of our world" he said as he searchingly looked at each in the crowd, he did this naturally and it didn't mean much but Nivo unconsciously straightened. "Shiema the kingdom slightly north of Trabia has recently begun a string of quite vicious attacks. Esthar has been defended by the huge mountain range, and they seem to have made a treaty with Trabia allowing them to attack the peaceful Shumi nation. The Shumi are secluded enough though that they had trouble entering and even more trouble finding their way into the city. Having very little success there they sent a large portion of their fleet to the archipelago above Dollet and The Tomb of the Unknown King. It is loosely controlled by Galbadia with a few minor cities there. Your job will be to help retake a city, which we think will cause a weakness in the Shiema control there to force them to give up the land, however that is not what I want to discuss now, you will be debriefed in more detail later." Once again he looked around, all eyes were on him though it was clear that a few has only looked up because he had stopped. "This archipelago had little strategic importance" in this last sentence he emphasized the words a little more "Are best guess which is shared by a few Galbadian officials is that there is a greater target in the Tomb south of there. This land is supposed to have a GF in it, and a very powerful one, it also is a place easy to leave traps in and use as something of a base." He stopped seeing his watch, "alright, it's time for you to go" he said now looking grave "I wish you all good luck."

The group took a large Balamb bus to Balamb port where they got on one of the standard SeeD ships. Nivo ended up in squad C (there were 4 squads) with only one person he knew at all, Dosty, the group leader, there was also a massive hulking 20 year old man and a strong, blonde girl around his age. As they traveled to the village known as Ulimro, they were debriefed, "Your objective is to gain control over the Western part of town, we will be entering through the eastern side so you should move quickly towards the center, where the city is divided. Travel east and take the weapon manufacturing facility as well as trying to gain control throughout the area. In this mission we're giving reasonable freedom of action but you will be followed by SeeDs who may give you information which you will be expected to follow. Oh, yes, and the command to withdraw takes precedence over everything."

After this short debriefing they leaned back each lost in their own thoughts. Nivo watched the others not wanting to seem out of place but eventually lost himself in his imagination. Dosty tried not to think about actually entering combat as he junctioned his GF carefully, he felt as all of them did that he was the most nervous, but thinking about his equipment over and over again kept his mind off the coming mission... kind of. The colossal man name Fliro breathed slowly, cracking his knuckles. He needed to do well here for his test scores were weak and he had seriously injured someone in training the year before by crushing them a little too long. He had no fear for his well being but was afraid of not making SeeD. At least that was one of the teacher's analysis of him was. The blonde girl's name was Krysa, she thought back on all her training rushing through everything with the fear of failure slowly filling her mind. None of them had any idea how much competition they'd face or how it would feel to actually be in combat, which is of course one of the purposes of this final test.

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They reached land and docked, quickly rushing out. Team C quickly ran through the town, they were seen frequently and attacked, but they ran through without trouble, it was someone else's job. A little before reaching the center of the town a blast of flame caught Fliro's shoulder and he spun angrily. Nivo looked back and thought of helping as four soldiers came out of an alleyway, but what he wanted was to pass the mission and he wouldn't take any risks. As he thought Dosty spoke in a loud enough voice that they could all hear, but it wouldn't bring a lot of attention. "I'll help Fliro, you two go up ahead, we'll catch you up when you begin taking our territory." Fliro had attacked by this time, he charged at incredible speeds and crashed into one Shiema soldier sending him flying into a wall, he turned to the others. They were leveling their rifles towards him and two fired at him missing the other was slashed apart as Dosty's shuriken flew into him. Fliro sent a huge flame blast finishing the last two as well as incinerating the shuriken.

"Sorry" he said without any sincerity "let's go." Dosty ran towards their target sector with him but was filled with thoughts his companion didn't seem to be feeling; he had killed and he felt the guilt seeping through. They could have ignored those soldiers, he could have kept running, they were just doing their jobs. But this type of thought wasn't right for the mission. Luckily they were not attacked as they caught up with the other two. Nivo was fighting well with his rapier, but without much magical power he couldn't successfully hold off the three opponents. Krysa was also having trouble, her magic was far more effective then Nivo's weapon but her six opponents were much more than she could handle for long. Just in time (like in all movies) Dosty showed up and cast a spell quickly, a fume slowly emanated around a few of the attackers of Krysa, they fell into a slumber before Fliro's spell hit, and it wasn't a sleep spell it was a blast of lightning. Dosty turned his face towards him, filled with anger at the needlessness of it. But Fliro had turned and crushed two more men. Dosty stared angrily. Of course this was stupid and he was immediately stabbed in the side, he fell gasping but still filled with only thoughts of anger. Nivo's concentration wasn't broken as if it was he would have been wounded too, but he saw the anger and dismissed Dosty as a weak fighter, you have to have perfect concentration, and you can't give in. Dosty kept his grasp on thought and felt a power run through him he had never felt before, he found himself standing holding his second shuriken out in front of him. With pure reflex the huge claw he wore on one hand shot up reflexively blocking the attempt to finish him. Suddenly a red light spun around him, circling the area, taking something out of everyone but his allies and drawing it into him. He felt himself rejuvenated as he looked around, getting a bit of a grasp on himself. The area was strewn with damage from Fliro's powerful spells, all the Shiema troops in the area lay knocked out by the expulsion of power from his body, a "limit break." Or killed by previous attacks.

Nivo gasped as he came back over to his leader, now unsure about him but still considering the allowance of someone stabbing Dosty to disallow him of the right to be a SeeD. Krysa took out a few elixirs and handed them out to the other three. Dosty drunk it and spoke a quick "thanks." And finally Fliro stood there, he put the elixir in his belt and waited for an order. Dosty recovered himself and decided he had to do something, say something "We should take the weapon facility, that's our duty."

At this point in the proceedings a SeeD came up on the disastrous scene and commanded them "They hold some powerful weapons we want destroyed in the weapon facility, if we can do that then the control of this archipelago by Shiema should be lost." The four shared a nod and headed down the road.

They came up to the entrance and Dosty held a finger to his mouth, silence. Their training kicked in as they slowly opened the door, but no one was there. They split up, slowly moving through the large, deserted, building. They all met again in the main weapon room, which was mostly empty of weapons except some junk which they looked over before destroying it. Finding nothing else they left, not too happy with their find. They reported to the SeeD watching over them, who after listening told them the most recent news "They moved out a lot of the important officials and armaments in this city, this attack was quite obviously coming. They prepared for it by leaving 30 or so troops here as they moved... somewhere. We need to head back, everyone to the harbor here." The group looked at each other with disappointment clear in each of their eyes. They moved back quickly and reached the boat before heading back in silence. It was over, there worries felt like they had been needless, but they didn't feel like they'd pass. No one had much of a sense of what had happened as there had only been space for a few thoughts and the reflexes of fighting. Very unlike most people's imagining of something coherent.

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The sixteen who took the test reached Balamb Garden at 5:00 in the evening, exhausted. They waited a couple of hours before an announcement told all the takers of the field exam to head to the second floor. But now was the moment that for some was the worst, everyone rode up to the second floor in silence. No one really had anything to say, they had all been part of this attack, they had all fought. To most the grade felt weird after something so serious. And to others like Nivo this was the part that determined everything. Headmaster Solir walked in as they all stood uncomfortably waiting. A few Garden workers brought in chairs for everyone in places where there was no way to see the others scores, the formalities were still observed. Solir walked around slowly, solemnly handing everyone their grades. Everyone's eyes immediately shot down to the bottom, to see whether they passed, before looking at their grades, a few didn't reach that second step as their concentration was spent holding back the excitement, or... the disappointment. Nivo stared over his grades, very careful to look at the results last.

Name: Nivo Trimonu

Age: 17

Conduct: 100/100

Attitude 60/100

Judgment 80/200

Physical 160/200

Magical 90/200

Test 100/100

Bonus 40/100

Total 630/1000 63

Pass or Fail: P

SeeD Rank: Lv.1

He stared at the card, disappointment at the lower score on attitude then he wanted or felt he deserved, but the excitement at passing was too much.

Name: Krysa Romui

Age:17

Conduct 90/100

Attitude 80/100

Judgment 110/200

Physical 100/200

Magical 140/200

Test 90/100

Bonus 50/100

Total 660/1000, 66

Pass or Fail: Pass

SeeD rank: Lv.2

She almost blew up in excitement, as she saw her result, before barely holding herself together long enough to read her individual scores.

Fliro looked down with the impression of not caring, he was one of the few to read each score before the result.

Name:Fliro Eizen

Age: 20

Conduct 40/100

Attitude 30/100

Judgment 80/200

Physical 200/200

Magical 190/200

Test 50/100

Bonus 30/100

Total 620/1000, 62

Pass or Fail: P, but you have an appointment with a few teachers tomorrow about conduct.

SeeD rank: Lv.1

Dosty sadly thought about his loss of control, and all the classes and tests he had skipped as he stared down at the score, before sitting up surprised at his result.

Name: Dosty (no recorded last name)

Age: 17

Conduct 50/100

Attitude 90/100

Judgment 100/200

Physical 130/200

Magical 140/200

Test 70/100

Bonus 70/100

Total 650/1000, 65

Pass or Fail: P

SeeD rank: Lv.2

Kusiro looked over his results, his team (team A) had done well, and he wasn't too afraid.

Name: Kusiro Teikomu

Age: 17

Conduct 90/100

Attitude 80/100

Judgment 150/200

Physical 150/200

Magical 160/200

Test 80/100

Bonus 80/100

Total 790/1000, 79

Pass or Fail: P

SeeD rank: Lv.4

Out of the rest of the three members on his team only one other passed. In division B there were two passes.

Name: Syra Silaito

Age: 16

Conduct 90/100

Attitude 90/100

Judgment 160/200

Physical 170/200

Magical 50/200

Test 80/100

Bonus 50/100

Total 690/1000, 69

Pass or Fail: P

SeeD rank: Lv.2

She was the only one in division D to pass. The nine of the sixteen jumped up when they were allowed to, hugging in ecstasy, while the people who hadn't sat dejected, a few congratulating, but most put out. Some of the winners tried to hold it in until they were out of the hall but most were too happy. A majority of the nine headed to their beds, trying to get a nap before the traditional dance that night, it took a while for each to calm down enough to get asleep, but they were also dead tired. Others were too excited and hung out gossiping, and laughing.

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Note to Reader- This is my first fanfic, but that doesn't mean you should judge nicely. I'd love reviews if you read it and if you want you can e-mail me at I tried to develop characters a bit in the first part to give some sense of how I'll try to write characters. The second part develops the world they live in (sorry if it was a bit dull). The third I add some action but try to keep developing characters. And finally I decided to show the scores the characters got on their tests, I know a lot of people passed, but I didn't want to lose characters that I thought were or could be interesting and of course these are probably going to be the characters I'll follow throughout, so they should stay in the story.


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